Any third party apps to highlight words on Mac as they're read by the built in Text-to-Speech?

I am dying to find something like this. With the three features mentioned:

- highliting text

- Auto-detect and change language

- pay/pause

Plus, I really really want two other things:

- integration: I don't want to have a separate window pop up to read – I'd rather just have the text be highlighted on whatever program I'm reading on

- shortcuts: this should be obvious, but I'm having trouble figuring out what programs have them.

Did you have a look at GhostReader. It works in demo mode for 14 days to test it.

http://www.convenienceware.com/product/ghostreade

I have used it a lot but some functionalities are not yet working in Yosemite beta.

This is an oldish post, but in case someone else comes along, I have researched this a fare bit. Here is my take as of February 2016:

For iOS (iPhone, iPad): I too like VoiceDream for the iPad it's text-to-speech, TTS. Its strengths are word and line highlighting during TTS. It also allows you to buy more "advanced" voices which are much better than the standard voice of the iOS. Its weaknesses are that any annotations are not associated with the pdf document and can't be saved for viewing on another device. PDF Expert is a pretty good choice too. It has better annotation abilities which are saved with the document and its faster. But, it only supports the basic built-in voice of iOS. And it only highlights one word at a time if you turn that feature on in the OS accessibility settings. None of these PDF readers support the advanced Alex voice and it seems to be because Apple doesn't make it available. This is odd, because Instapaper and Pocket both support the Alex voice, but don't support or read PDF files. In case you didn't know, the Alex voice sounds more natural and stay that way at faster reading speeds. In my experience, it makes fewer word interpretation errors and its pronunciations are more consistent and accurate.

On the Mac, I'm using a dedicated program called Read&Write Gold from text help. It is designed for TTS and provides true bi-model word and sentence highlighting. I works on top of productivity programs and will read PDF's. It also supports other languages. You can try it for free. It costs a bit of money unless you can provide proof of dyslexia. Another option is PDF Expert for Mac, which supports the Alex voice. But, it and most all other apps don't support any highlighting of the word being read. I haven't found any Mac application that supports word highlighting. This includes Apple's productivity apps, iBooks, Adobe Acrobat - full version. In OS X, there is no option to "Highlight Content" as it is spoken like there is in iOS. That really leaves Read&Write Gold. There are other dedicated programs for TTS, but I like Read&Write Gold the best. It works with other programs, doesn't replace them, they have good tech support and the program works pretty reliably. They have a PC version as well, but the PC don't have an Alex level voice, but still pretty good.

I hope that helps someone.

Try an APP called Speech in the Mac App Store , it cost only $0.99. In addition of Highlighting words you can also click on a word and the app start reading from this point on. You also can export it to an audio file, change speed and use Keyboard for Pause/Play.

http://www.devserahug.com/speech/en/

Thx dbaty,

I need 3 features:

- highliting text

- Auto-detect and change language

- pay/pause

Ghostreader Plus does all this

Thx eddy kestemont.

Yes GhostReader does all this!

I'd like to pay/pause ghostReader with my bluetooth headset.

How can I remap the headset button?

Did you try Ghostreader Plus ?